1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nail printing apparatus and a print control method for a nail printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plotting print apparatus provided with a drawing head to which a pen (drawing tool) is attached has been known. Such a print apparatus performs drawing with the tip of the pen touching a sheet of paper (or an object).
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-266789 discloses the technique of detecting the inclination angle of a table, on which a planar sheet of paper is to be placed, with respect to a floor surface; and maintaining a constant pen pressure, a constant speed at which the pen moves downward, and a constant moving speed of a drawing head in accordance with the inclination angle.
The technique disclosed in the above-mentioned document can keep the pen pressure etc. unchanged regardless of the change in inclination angle of the table when drawing is performed on a planar sheet of paper placed on the table.
When a plotter is used as a nail printing apparatus, an object on which a drawing is to be made is a nail curving in its width direction, the widthwise center part of the nail being at a high position. The level of the surface to be touched by a pen tip therefore changes in the vertical direction (or height direction).
When drawing starts from an edge part of a nail at a relatively low position to the center part of the nail at a relatively high position, that is, when a pen is moved in the direction to go up the inclined surface a nail, a force pressing the nail in the horizontal direction is applied to the nail. Such a force may move the finger in the horizontal direction.
If a moving pen presses a nail and causes the finger to move, the finish of the nail print is deteriorated in quality.